Brinello tries to make it a hat trick in Agassiz

Manitoba-breds will be in the spotlight at Assiniboia Downs on Friday as Brinello heads a field of seven in the Agassiz and Easters Lily takes on 10 rivals in the Distaff.

The Agassiz, for colts and geldings, and the Distaff, for fillies and mares, are one-mile races worth $50,000 each and will form the late double on the eight-race program.

Brinello, a 7-year-old gelding owned by Ross McKague, will be seeking to win the Agassiz for a third consecutive time. Trained by Carl Anderson, Brinello tuned up with a sharp 3 1/2-length win in a 7 1/2-furlong allowance race on Aug. 7.

Mark Anderson will ride Brinello for the 20th consecutive time, with their history including the two Agassiz scores.

Leading the opposition is Spying Eyes, a 4-year-old gelding trained by Clayton Gray. Winner of the restricted J.W. Sifton and Gold Strike last year, Spying Eyes is coming off a second-place finish in the Agassiz prep and again will have leading rider Larren Delorme in the irons.

Eight By Ten, the Manitoba-bred horse of the year in 2007 after capturing the CTHS Sales and Buffalo stakes, is winless in five starts this season.

Easters Lily was a convincing winner of the one-mile allowance prep for the Distaff. A 5-year-old who is trained and part-owned by Wayne Elias, Easters Lily had been a fringe performer in open first-level allowance company prior to her latest.

Carlos Marquez retains the mount on Easters Lily, who finished second to Queen Tina in the Distaff last year.

Queen Tina, the Manitoba-bred horse of the year in 2008, has slumped this season and is coming off a dead-heat finish for fourth in the Distaff prep. Delorme takes over. The filly she dead heated with, Dolce Lauruco, also is back on Friday.

Simple Intentions and Thunder Sky, the two-three finishers in the prep, will be back on Friday.

Golden Stripe, a homebred 3-year-old who races for K-5 Stable, exits a faltering fifth-place finisher in the much tougher Assiniboia Oaks and could take them all the way. Emile Corbel trains Golden Stripe. Rohan Singh, who piloted her to a 5 3/4-length victory in the restricted one-mile R.C. Anderson two starts back, regains the mount.